Gossip Girl author Cecily Von Ziegesar has said that the 1920 novel The Age of Innocence inspired her best-selling series. Edith Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence back in 1921.

 

In 1977, aerospace engineer Janet Guthrie was the first woman to qualify for the Daytona 500. This year, Danica Patrick was the first woman to qualify in the first position for that same race.

 

Madeleine Albright became the first female secretary of state in 1997 as part of Bill Clinton's cabinet. Decades later, his wife and former senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, became the third female secretary of state (Condoleeza Rice was the second). Both Hillary and Condoleeza have been discussed as potential  candidates for the next presidential election. However, Victoria Woodhull was the first female presidential nominee way back in 1872.

 

In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to be awarded a medical degree. Fifteen years later, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to receive her M.D. Now, 48.3 percent of med school graduates are women.

 

Women have always supported other women, but in 1795, Anne Parrish became the first American woman to make it official by establishing the House of Industry, which was the first organization for women in America.

 

Women have done many things in the last century-plus. They've gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel (Annie Edson Taylor, 1901), conducted symphonies (Mary Davenport-Engberg, 1914), swam the English Channel (Gertrude Ederlle, 1926), directed major corporations (Lettie Pate Whitehead, 1934, Coca-Cola), been baseball scouts (Edith Houghton, 1946), broken the sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochran, 1960), ridden in the Kentucky Derby (Diane Crump, 1970; Julie Krone was the first to win a Triple Crown race in 1993), been ordained and canonized (Sally Jean Priesand as a rabbi in 1972; Elizabeth Ann Seton was made a saint in 1975), sat on the Supreme Court (Sandra Day O'Connor, 1981), gone to space (Sally Ride, 1983; Mae Jemison became the first black female astronaut in 1992), headed the Air Force (Shiela Widnall, 1993) and won Oscars (Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win best director in 2009 for The Hurt Locker).

 

So, what are you going to do? Tell us, babes!